Crash closes Hwy. 160 for short while

Durango Fire & Rescue Authority and Upper Pine Fire Protection District medical technicians help victims after their car went off U.S. Highway 160 and stopped in the Florida River east of Durango on Friday afternoon.

STEVE LEWIS/Durango Herald

Durango Fire & Rescue Authority and Upper Pine Fire Protection District medical technicians help victims after their car went off U.S. Highway 160 and stopped in the Florida River east of Durango on Friday afternoon.

FLORIDA MESA – A single-car accident closed a section of U.S. Highway 160 east of Elmore’s Corner on Friday afternoon.

Four adults inside the vehicle were taken to Mercy Regional Medical Center with relatively minor injuries.

The crash occurred about 3:40 p.m. a quarter mile east of County Road 225A, said Trooper Scott Hubner, with the Colorado State Patrol.

The car drifted off the right side of the road and went down a steep embankment, he said. It hit a delineator post, went through a fence, hit a tree and landed in the Florida River, he said.

A 3½-mile stretch of Highway 160 – between county roads 225A and 223 – was closed while authorities worked to extricate a woman and pull her up the 20-foot embankment. Traffic was rerouted on County Road 223.

The vehicle was occupied by two men and two women. They were reportedly en route from Missouri to attend a wedding in Durango.